Correction: The $50 membership fee for Final Exit Network is annual, not one-time.

A national right-to-die-group argued Tuesday, Dec. 18, that its role in the suicide of an Apple Valley woman, which included instructions on the best way to die by asphyxiation, was protected as free speech.

Four members of Final Exit Network face charges in connection with the death of Doreen Dunn, who died by suicide in May 2007 after struggling with chronic, debilitating pain. She was not terminally ill.

Dunn joined the group earlier that year, reportedly writing a letter that explained her condition. Members pay an annual fee of about $50 and submit medical records.

Two members of the group traveled to Minnesota as "exit guides" and were in Dunn's home when she died, according to authorities and travel records.

About a dozen Final Exit supporters, some from out of state, were in the courtroom to watch the proceedings.

According to prosecutors, guides usually visit members before a suicide, help them practice the method -- typically asphyxiation by inhaling helium from a plastic bag placed over the head -- offer moral support and comfort, then remove evidence after the fact if asked to do so.

Charges against the four people including aiding a suicide, which is a felony, and interfering with a death scene, a gross misdemeanor.

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Attorneys for the defendants told Dakota County District Court Judge Karen Asphaug Tuesday that the group did nothing more than provide readily available information and moral support to Dunn.

Even that is a crime under Minnesota law, which bars advising, encouraging or assisting someone in taking his or her own life. But the defense team says the advising and encouraging portions should be thrown out as unconstitutional because they infringe on free speech without sufficient justification.

Robert Rivas, a Florida attorney for Final Exit, said the information on suicide by helium inhalation is readily available from numerous sources, include the 1991 book "Final Exit" from which the group takes its name.

"The speech that Final Exit is being prohibited from making in this case is speech that is being made every day by plenty of Minnesotans," he said.

John Lunquist, a Minneapolis attorney for the defense, said the state was making a convoluted case that selling thousands of copies of the book was legal, but giving the same information to one person was not.

Asphaug put that question to prosecutors, asking them the difference between Final Exit's communications with Dunn and dialogue in a recent Guthrie Theater play by Tony Kushner that spelled out much of the same information.

Assistant Dakota County Attorney Elizabeth Swank said the distinction lies in intent. Final Exit members knew Dunn was contemplating suicide and that their actions were intended to facilitate that outcome, Swank said.

Curtailing such speech is acceptable because the state has a compelling interest "in protecting human life and protecting vulnerable individuals," she said.

People still are free to talk openly about suicide and suicide methods, she said, but not with the intent of convincing an individual to commit suicide.

The case is one of two pending in Minnesota that involves issues of free speech and suicide. Earlier this year, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of a former nurse who sent Internet messages encouraging people to kill themselves.

The appeals court rejected a free-speech defense in that case, but the state Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal and should do so next year.

Final Exit's attorneys said Tuesday the appeals court overreached and that the decision will not stand up under scrutiny.

Final Exit said it does not encourage people to kill themselves and, in many cases, urges them to seek alternatives.

Asphaug is expected to rule on the First Amendment issue, as well as a handful of other challenges ranging from probable cause to statute of limitations, in the coming weeks.